Roosevelt Milton Talks About OKC'S GLBT Community

GayOKC.comxxxxxROOSEVELT MILTON TALKS ABOUT OKC'S GLBT xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxCOMMUNITY by Rob Abiera

I recently spoke to Roosevelt Milton, president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Clored People, about the GLBT comunity's involvement in the Martin Luther King Day Parade. I asked Dr. Milton how he saw the relationship between the Gay and Lesbian community and the African-American community here in Oklahoma City. He replied that he feels that tremendous progress has been made in the 7 to 8 years that the OKC NAACP has been dealing with GLBT issues and that, while Gays and Lesbians were initially disdained by African-Americans, they were now much more accepted and that there is now much more of a tendency to equate GLBT issues with African-American issues. Milton noted that local churches have played an important factor in gaining acceptance for Gays and Lesbians among African-Americans, saying that several years ago there was a schizm among Black Christians, and that while some of them felt a "vague disdain" for homosexuals, there were others who were willing to join forces to overcome what they perceived to be common oppressions, one result of which was the Coalition for an Inclusive Future.

I then asked Dr. Milton why he thought Gays and Lesbians should care about the African-American community. He replied that "injustice is a threat to all" and that both Gays and Lesbians and African-Americans know what it feels like to be ostracized and misrepresented and to have no place to register a complaint. Both Gays and Lesbians and African-Americans want fairness and equality of opportunity and justice.

When I asked him why he thought Gays and Lesbians should care about the Martin Luther King parade, he said that the parade is for everyone who is oppressed-and more than that-for eveyone who wants more equality and justice. He said that Gays and Lesbians understand the subtleties of racism because of their experiences. He said that the parade is also for those who may not feel personally able to speak out, but can still protest by marching. He reminded me that, in his opinion, the US used to be in some ways like South Africa was during apartheid. Saying that the GLBT community was doing the right thing by supporting the Martin Luther King Day Parade, he mentioned that Dr. King talked of how we should stand together and stand for each other and for equal rights. Coretta Scott King, who once gave a speech entitled "Overcoming Homophobia", said that the racist, the anti-semites, the sexist, and the homophobic share a dehumanizing fear which prevents empathy. They share the need to dehumanize others in order to make themselves feel "more human". Anthropologists say human beings feel a sense of belonging first to their species, then to their gender, and then to their race.

I also asked Dr. Milton about allegations that Oklahoma City mayor Kirk Humphreys had attempted to convince leaders of the African-American community to discontinue support for GLBT issues at the time of the vote to extend the MAPS tax last year. Milton said that Kirk Humphreys spoke to a number of the leaders of Oklahoma City's African-American community, including Lecia Swain, publisher of the Ebony Tribune, and Gregg Pringle, executive director of the Urban League of Greater Metropolitan Oklahoma City. While Milton could not say what Humphreys told the other leaders, he did say that Humphreys told Milton that he questioned the African-American community's support for Gay issues, to which Milton responded with the same thing he told me today.

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